Explore SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell Immunity
 

Scientists worldwide are working to understand the specific immune responses against the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in order to design an efficient vaccine.

The best defense against the virus is to mount an immune response that comprises armies of specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells to eliminate virus infected cells and helper CD4+ T cells to orchestrate humoral immunity, leading to an antibody response against the virus. Cytotoxic and helper T cells are both activated by recognition of virus fragments (peptide-epitopes) displayed by Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) present on the surface of antigen-presenting cells. Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells recognize virus epitopes presented by MHC I, while helper CD4+ T cells recognize virus epitopes presented by MHC II.

It has been confirmed that T-cell immunity plays an important role in recovery from SARS-CoV infection1,2,3. Understanding the specific T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 is important for defining correlates of protective immunity and identifying effective vaccine antigens.
 

Measure SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell Immunity

Immudex provides MHC I and II Dextramer® reagents able to track COVID-19-specific T cells in blood of patients to evaluate vaccine and disease-induced virus-specific immune responses. The multiple copies of MHC-peptide complexes in the MHC Dextramer reagents ensure strong and specific binding to T-cell receptors on the surface of T cells, allowing identification of T cells, recognizing the virus. 

The MHC Dextramer technology allows researchers to directly evaluate whether the desired effect of their vaccine has been induced by measuring T-cell responses in blood of vaccinated individuals.

SARS-CoV-2-specific MHC Dextramer reagents can:

• Monitor T-cell immunity in COVID-19 infected/vaccinated subjects
• Assess the ability of vaccine candidates to elicit efficient T-cell responses in hosts
• Facilitate SARS-CoV-2-specific epitope discovery 

Based on the protein sequences of SARS-CoV-2, several publications have identified predicted T-cell epitopes4,5,6. Immudex' COVID-19 products can be manufactured with any of the suggested T-cell epitopes. The immunological information about the virus continues to evolve, and more epitopes will be available in the future.
 

COVID-19 Specific Dextramer® Products:
 

• MHC I and II Dextramer reagents

  Dextramer reagents,  comprising suggested SARS-CoV-2-epitopes based on publications, or provided by you, are available upon request. Immudex can easily manufacture customized reagents if the requested HLA-allele is available, and if the epitopes can form stable complexes with the MHC molecule. See available HLA-alleles here and contact us to evaluate the feasibility of your customized product. 

• COVID-19 dCODE Dextramer panel

  Based on literature and internal research, Immudex has established an explorative panel of COVID-19-specific Dextramer reagents applicable in the search for useful T-cell epitopes and to gain a better understanding of COVID-19 immunity. The panel comprises epitopes from the SARS-CoV-2 antigens: Spike protein, Nucleocapsid protein, and Membrane protein and currently covers the most common MHC I alleles (HLA-A*0101, -A*0201, - A*0301 and - A*1101) and MHC II alleles (DRB1*0101, *0401 and *0701). More alleles will be added continuously.

• Custom Dextramer solutions

  Dextramer and dCODE Dextramer reagents with your choice of SARS-CoV-2 epitope are available on request.  We also provide customer designed tools for epitope discovery and high throughput screening of large panels of virus-specific  dCODE Dextramer reagents, comprising candidate epitopes, allowing the screening of multiple T-cell specificities at the same time.

            Please contact us today to hear more about our COVID-19-specific products, and let us help you find the best solution for your project.